#*are* minors. either teens or in one case younger. there's arguments to be made about how desirable some of their shows present them as

[the-13th-rose]

Well speaking personally as a grown woman with interests that skew towards childish, a shy nature, and a youthful looking face -

No, actually, I am not concerned about the stylistic choices of certain anime nor do I think giving a female character big eyes is going to somehow turn the entire audience into "deviants".

Every example of "what anime should be" in That Fucking Post is skewed towards toughness and I thought we already went over the feminist talking point of how making it so that every female character is an ultra-capable badass is not going to fix misogyny.

"Anime women are skewing too much towards soft/childish" so you agree? Female characters should be diverse in design and not restricted to one body type? How is wanting the same damn thing but with only tall skinny thin-faced women going to help.

[rawrrbats]

The Twisted Wonderland fandom makes me sad (rant)

I’m going to be honest. For a fandom of a videogame where you only need to be like 5 to play and most of the characters in the main cast are kids, it sure has a lot of weird nsfw content…I wouldn’t say anything if it was of the few adult characters, but the most popular ones are of the younger ones…it’s disgusting. Most “popular” people in this fandom follow accounts that post this kind of stuff too.

Twisted Wonderland, for what it is, is a beautiful game with a beautiful story, and it’s a shame that people only seem to care about how “hot” the characters are, even if they’re teens, and shipping another character or yourself with them or whatever. Nothing wrong with shipping or selfshipping or whatever (as long as it’s not nsfw stuff with teens obviously), most ships and OCs are cute and funny! But it becomes weird when it’s all the fandom can think of when thinking of these characters, ESPECIALLY when it’s done in a very nsfw kind of way, which is the case for the majority of this fandom.

I can not count with both of my hands the amount of accounts I had to block because they either make weird incestuous fanart, ship adults with non-adults or make nsfw fanart of TEEN characters!!! Like how can you make weird art of minors and have the courage to put “minors dni” in your bio?!

“Oh but what if the people making those are teens too?” Most of them are not, trust me, I always check their bios.

“Don’t worry, they’re just anime characters that don’t even look that much like their age” Yes they DO, that’s the issue. Or are you going to tell me that Ace Trappola does not look like the most stereotypically 16 year old boy ever?! I even remember reading somewhere that the artist and author (Yana Toboso right…?) made a special effort for the characters to look their age.

Another argument I have seen is that some characters, like the twins, may have started as 17 in the story but have probably already turned 18 by now, since their birthday technically already passed, which is WRONG.

If NRC is following the “European model” of schools then the twins would have started the year as 16 year olds, and then after book 2 they become 17 year olds. Basically you turn the age you’re supposed to be in a school year in the year the school year starts. I know this is confusing so let me give you an example:

person A is born in January and person B is born in October. They both go to the same school. They start 11th grade, where they are supposed to be 16 in september 2024. This means that person A turns 16 in January 2024 but person B only turns 16 in October 2024, still in the same year the school year starts but after the school year already started.

Even if you guys were only attracted to these teens because of a weird high school nostalgia fetish, you guys still have Lilia and LEONA, who is 20 and GORGEOUS AS HELL, HELLO???

(and technically all of the 3rd years but to me that is being on thin ice)

Sorry for bad English

[mindibindi]

Beyond disappointed in Ted Lasso. What were they thinking?!

The writing is a complete betrayal and insult to Rebecca’s character and Hannah’s skills as they’re being seriously underused. It’s also insulting Sam’s character.

Hoping someone pulls Rebecca’s head out of her ass tbh. Sam shouldn’t be getting caught in the crossfire of her looking for romance. I know he showed up at her doorstep but she still should’ve turned him away, and not even messaged him in the first place.

Hey, I'm with you, Anon, though we do seem to be in the minority. Sam is definitely not blameless here, he is also in the wrong. But if one of them is more in the wrong, it is Rebecca. I can't speak to whether her head has left her arse as yet because I have quit watching (at least for now). I hear she called it off with Sam in the most recent ep, though not because of any major crisis of conscience or because anyone in her inner circle expressed any reasonable reservations in response to her bad behaviour. And to be honest, I'm not sure we should need to hope and pray that Rebecca's precocious god-daughter, her slimy ex-husband, or the brutal British press will act as a moral compass on this ill-advised relationship. Both Rupert and the press have been set up to some extent as the villains of the piece. And a 14 year old should never have to school her elders on what is and isn't acceptable. Nora's needs have already been neglected by Rebecca for far too long.

If a moral position is to be taken on this, it needs to be taken by the show (because stance matters) and/or by its characters. But the show has for the most part depicted this relationship as ill-advised but ultimately hot, sweet, funny and romantic. As for the characters themselves, Sam has shown at least once that he has some moral backbone but seems to be adorably clueless when it comes to fucking his boss who keeps trying to set boundaries with him. Meanwhile, Rebecca's whole arc in s1 was about learning not to misuse her power for her own selfish ends. In season one, she misused her power within the club in order to exact revenge. In season 2, we have seen her misuse her sexual power, though I still cannot see to what end. I'm a bit at a loss as to what exactly she gets out of this 'relationship' but then I'm a grown woman so I have absolutely no interest in sleeping with a Harry Potter enthusiast barely out of his teens. I couldn't think of anything less sexy and more ick. I was certainly hoping for better character development for her this season.

As to what the writers were thinking, obviously I was not in the writer's room, but I would guess that they were thinking that any drama is good drama, people are stupid and fan devotion will trump any meaningful critique. In other words, they were thinking exactly how every other television writer thinks, despite the fact that this show posited itself as 'not like other TV shows'. This, to me, is where the blame really lies. Not with the characters or with the actors who are doing their best to sell this ludicrous turn of events. It must be noted, however, that both actors were completely blindsided by this relationship that had supposedly been so cleverly foreshadowed. Newsflash: if the people actually living these stories did not see this coming then you haven't foreshadowed shit. Sure, there were a handful of people that paired Rebecca with Sam but this does not constitute proof either. Fans have free-range to imagine and re-imagine characters. In some cases this may extend to imagining relationships between characters who have barely, if ever, interacted. There may be little to no evidence that these characters have even clocked each other's existence and some fans will still ship it. The existence of a handful of shippers does not legitimise such a problematic and divisive plotline making it onscreen.

But wait!, you might argue, this may not be a case of a popular show seeing just how far they can stretch fan devotion. This may not be a case of fan service to a handful of shippers. After all, the creators mapped out the entire three-season arc of Ted Lasso before they even pitched it to Apple. This was their brilliant plan all along! To which I would say: then maybe they should've rethought their second act based on people's strong reactions to their first. Ted Lasso was touted as the show we all needed in 2020. The writers and creators have all marveled at the chord it struck considering it was conceived prior to the pandemic and all the chaos it wrought. And while there is something to be said for having/sticking to a creative vision, there is also something to be said for being flexible and responsive to your audience and the cultural zeitgeist with which you're engaged. Season 1 of Ted Lasso told its story so gently, without creating distrust, division or unnecessary anxiety. It did not treat its audience like a gaggle of stupid lemmings to be led over a succession of narrative cliffs. THIS is what I mean when I say the show has broken with its brand. And look, this whole dark forest thing would be okay if the narrative arc was as well-crafted as s1. Season 1 gave us meaning, cohesion, comfort, sense in a senseless time. It was an almost perfectly crafted season of television. And I kept the faith for 6 episodes, despite the first half of s2 being pretty damn wobbly. But the follow-up to this stellar debut has been less than extraordinary so yeah, perhaps they should've thought a little harder about what made s1 so special before throwing it all out the window.

But wait!, I hear the faithful say, you don't know how things will pan out yet! Wait until the season is over and everything will make sense! But -- wearily and once again, I say -- we should not need to wait until the end of the season to understand what the hell is happening. By this point (over halfway through the season and show) we should have a v clear idea of the show's themes and the characters' arcs. And tbf, from what I can tell there are some fab things happening in other aspects of the show that I wish I could watch and enjoy. But my biggest fear at this point is that they are going to use Sam to solve Rebecca's childlessness. That, like Rupert (because the parallel cannot be avoided), she will become pregnant with a young fling and the show's attitude to this relationship will ultimately be: oh well, it was a bad idea and didn't work out for them but it was all for the best in the end cos who can be mad about a cute lil baaaayyybbbeeee??!! If they do go down this path then I will definitely be abstaining from the rest of the show. I will simply recall my repeated viewings of s1 with fondness tinged with regret at just how badly they fucked up a good thing.

Ultimately, Anon, I think this may be a case of there simply not being a diverse enough perspective in the writer's room. I am not saying that every single woman or every single person of colour will necessarily object to this relationship. I am simply saying that women and people of colour will be more sensitive to the issues of gender and race that are relevant here but that have not been fully or sensitively acknowledged in the writing of this plotline. Neither am I saying that Rebecca is the first woman to sleep with a man much (much, much, MUCH) younger than herself or indulge in an ill-advised relationship. But the comparison with Rupert both works here and doesn't because Rebecca is not being written like a white woman, she is being written like a white man. Realistically, only a white man can engage in this kind of hugely imbalanced relationship seemingly without any major moral qualms or societal ramifications. Not to put too fine a point on it, but this kind of relationship is reserved for all the Bills and Joes and Brendans and Jasons out there -- not for the Rebeccas and definitely not for the Sams. We are way beyond the point in feminism where we believe that liberation is simply the right for a white woman to behave as badly as a white man. The truth is that whatever wealth, power and privilege Rebecca has, the rules are different for men and women. She will not be treated the same as Rupert if and when this affair is uncovered. She will be treated far more savagely than Rupert ever was and Sam will be treated far more savagely than Bex was. This is not an argument for the equal treatment of these two relationships. It is an argument against how the relationship between Rebecca and Sam has been envisaged, i.e. through the wrong perspective. In writing from a 'neutral' white male pov, the show has invisiblised all the many issues activated by this storyline and revealed a blindspot that was always there.

As much as I loved and still love season 1 of this show, it has definite blindspots when it comes to representations of race and gender. There are at least two moments in s1 that stand out for me as being so obviously written by a man. Not necessarily because of what they do but because of what they don't do: what is missed, absent, unacknowledged. I was willing to overlook such minor failings in a debut season for many reasons. But s2 seems to have exacerbated these minor flaws rather than correcting them. And here I can't help thinking of Tina Fey speaking of the diversification of the writer's room at SNL during her tenure as co-headwriter. This notoriously male-dominated environment only began to shift and produce better work when a greater diversity of minds, voices and persepectives was allowed in the room. In this richer environment, she notes, different jokes played differently. Different sketches made it to air. Different perspectives were represented and different performers were celebrated. I can't help wondering if this plotline would have made it to air if there had been a female writer, a writer of colour or both further up the chain of command to challenge the ideas of the straight white dudes in charge.

One of the reasons I didn't think Ted Lasso was for me was that it centred a straight, white, cis-het, able-bodied man who rose to a position he didn't earn. That is just not a pov I would normally choose for myself, especially now that there is such a rich array of alternative perspectives through which to view the world. But I think the show won a lot of females fans with its first season largely due to its portrayal of Rebecca. She is the first person we meet. She is arguably the protagonist of s1. And while she would have been figured as a villain in previous pieces, the show never took that stance with her (because again, stance matters). Other elements like the depiction of female friendships, all centred around Rebecca, made this show female-friendly viewing. But imo, the major reason this show won over female fans (this one, at least) is because, in this post-MeToo, post-TimesUp era, it stood up and said: domestic violence is not okay, we stand with women and all victims of abuse, we will defend you, we know words can hurt, we know it can happen to anyone, we know all about toxic masculinity, we do not take this lightly and we will support you in your healing. Needless to say, this is how women hope men will act when they speak of their most difficult experiences but it is not how they always do.

The shift away from Rebecca this season has however meant that the white male experience is more centred than it was in s1. Rebecca's journey to recovery, health and happiness has been trivialised and sidelined, reduced to a highly questionable sexcapade. Meanwhile, we get overwrought manpain at every turn. We get Beard wandering around London (no, I haven't seen it and no, I don't need to. We've all been raised on white dudes thinking they're genuises when they have a figurative wank all over our screens). We get NO queer represention at all. And the only other female characters on screen are in care/service roles to men. The father/son, mentoring and toxic masculinity themes are all still there but they're no longer balanced out by ANY other competing perspective. One of the reasons I was okay with Ted failing upwards in s1 was that he used his power and privilege to lift up others. He was the one in service. He used his enormous privilege for good, as anyone with such privilege must. (Admittedly, it could be argued that this is just another version of a white savior narrative).

My point here is that I'm not sure that peeking behind the mask at the sad clown is as revolutionary as some might believe. We love it because it's familiar. But this is a narrative with a long and problematic history. Do I believe in tearing down toxic masculinity in all its forms? You bet. Do I believe that patriarchy traumatises men as well as women and every other minority in existence? I mean...nowhere near as much, but absolutely. Do I believe in men expressing their feelings and going to therapy? Wholeheartedly. But I am also aware that 100 or so years ago, we were in a very similar place with our narratives. Everyone is looking for a recapitulation of modernism and frankly, this might be an indicator of just that. Whenever women and people of colour have demanded rights and recognition, there has always been a resurgence of tales about just how frickin' hard it is to be a white man. Minority genders and non-white people have never in western history been as visible or vocal as they are now. So forgive me (or don't, I don't care) if I critique a show not only for centering fathers, sons, boys and men but for blindly and boldly writing one of its only female characters and one of its only black characters as if their gender and race just do not exist. There are many other power differentials at play in this relationship, including age, experience, wealth and position, but race and gender are the two that patriarchy is most invested in invisiblising. So I don't care how brilliant they think they are, I will not trust the writing of a bunch of white dudes trying to tell me that race and gender are irrelevant.

[putschki1969]

Hello! I heard a rumour somewhere that Keiko got eye surgery when she was younger. Do you know anything about this? Thank you!

Hello there anon!

Yes, there have been rumours about this but there is no factual evidence and certainly no official confirmation by Keiko. Please keep that in mind while reading through this post. As we all know, I do not enjoy speculations all that much but I will have to admit that there are some pretty concrete indications that have led people (including myself) to believe that she might have had something done.

In case there are some fans who have no idea what anon and I are talking about, we are referring to Keiko possibly having undergone a so called double eyelid surgery as depicted in the image below:

Here are the most important things you need to know: It is a cosmetic procedure which is very popular among predominantly Asian communities to “treat” monolid and to effectively make the eyes appear larger. It’s about as common and “normal” as getting braces in the US. In fact, I reckon you are more likely to find youths in Asia who have done or are planning to do an aesthetic eyelid surgery rather than ones who are wearing braces. It is a pretty minor and very affordable procedure so people will not hesitate to get it done at a very young age. Often it will be the parents or other relatives who will suggest and pay for a surgery or they might even pressure the youth into getting one. While I am not Asian, I do have a LOT of Asian friends and acquaintances, many of whom have actually had double eyelid surgery in the past. So I feel rather confident talking about this topic because I am pretty much just relaying what they have experienced. 

Among many Westerners (including members of the Kalafina fandom) the procedure is seen as controversial and there are quite a lot of people who oppose it but please let it be known that I personally DO NOT JUDGE anyone for getting this surgery. It’s your body, your choice, if it makes you happy then please go ahead. I strongly believe that if you have no issue with people getting braces then you should also be totally fine with aesthetic eyelid surgery or else you are a big fat hypocrite. There is zero reason to look down on anyone who has had the procedure done and if I ever come across someone talking shit about another person because of this, I will not hesitate to call them out on it!

Now that that is out of the way, let’s talk about Keiko, shall we? She has never shared pictures of herself as a child. The youngest we have seen her is at age 15. We have one official picture from that time (seen on NHK’s Studio Park and Kalafina’s 10th Anniversary Fim) as well as video footage of her little acting gig in the movie Star Light (can be found on YouTube). Looking at the picture and the footage from an objective point of view, I personally believe that back then she was still pre-surgery. Everything we got afterwards (Itokubo era when she was around 20) looks like it was post-surgery. Here is a comparison of Keiko at age 15 and age 34.

I am aware of course that the old picture (as well as the old footage) does not have the best quality so it definitely cannot provide any sort of substantial evidence for whether or not she has had surgery. However, I think it’s clear enough to be used for the purpose of this comparison and to draw some more or less concrete conclusions from it.

It is quite telling that Keiko is the only one who hasn’t shared a proper “childhood” picture and the single picture she has willingly chosen to provide has her looking upwards which naturally makes her eyes appear larger and conveniently conceals the possible pre-surgery state of her eyes to the casual onlooker.

However, if we take a close look at the old picture, there appears to be no fold in the upper eyelid between the eyelashes and the eyebrow. I know, Keiko does not seem to be wearing any make-up here so that could be a little misleading but I honestly think it looks like she had monolids back then. Ultimately, it’s up to all of you to decide what you make of this picture. You can either see it or not. At the end of the day it doesn’t matter since it’s all just speculation. We will never know for sure so there is no point in overanalysing the matter. On my part it is a simple observation that does not have any bearing on how I feel about her. If she didn’t have it done, that’s fine, if she had it done, that’s also A-OKAY. 

Last but not least I would like to address a couple of weird arguments fans have brought up in order to refute that rumour:

Keiko is a perfect little angel who would NEVER do such a thing. Please stop that train of thought right there! Keiko is human, not some otherworldy being you have put on a pedestal. She is constantly making changes to her body and if she decided to get this surgery then we have to respect that decision and realise that it does not make her a lesser person.

The procedure isn’t all that popular in Japan compared to other Asian countries. While it may not be as popular as in Korea for example it is still the most commonly requested cosmetic surgery in Japan according to this article. You are in denial if you think those surgeries do not take place in Japan. Maybe they do not talk as openly about it as they do in Korea, it’s all very hush-hush in Japan BUT it’s happening for sure.  

Double-eyelid surgery wasn’t really a thing during the time Keiko was a teen. Uhmm..not really. it may not have been quite as hyped back then as it is now but it was most definitely something that happened frequently even in those days when Keiko was still a teen. Ever since the post-war era, the popularity of double-eyelid surgery has steadily increased so it’s been there for ages. I would also like to add a little example from my personal life to illustrate the popularity of the procedure in the very first years of the 21st century. My best friend who is in her early 30s has had her surgery done at age 19 (so around the same time that Keiko would have gotten hers). Even though she has lived most of her life in a Western country, didn’t grow up in Asia and was actually met with quite a bit of resistence from her Western surrounding (not from me, mind you!), she still made the decision to get the procedure done and just so you know, she did it for purely aesthetic reasons. Now if someone like her got the surgery done back in the day I would think it’s only logical to assume that young people in Japan were even more likely to get it done.

[mordigen]

Wicca is a Sex Cult - you won’t change my mind. Pt 1

I have always had a since of unbelonging and curiosity my entire life. So, I’d like to believe that my ‘path’ in the craft has been eternal. But, if we are scrutinizing - I guess you could say it didn’t really begin until I was about 9-11 years olde. Can’t remember the precise age or year - just how it went, and my friends that started on that path with me. When you are olde enough to start developing your own likes and interests, olde enough to start having questions about anything and everything in the world around you - and young enough to have complete reckless abandon and lack of frontal lobe development to indulge such questions, curiosities, and probably otherwise, not the *smartest* of explorations. But boy, did we make some memories. 

But this was also the time when only the ~rich folk~ had internet in their homes, where the rest of us were reduced to the free 10 minute sessions at the public library which came with the intrusive screaming of dial-up, met with properly humiliating glares of disgust and disapproval that was just too much for a bunch of pre-teens to handle. So what other options could were we possibly left with? Well, if you had guessed the idle corners of book stores’ New Age  sections, you would be correct, friends! And what else could be found on New Age shelves in the early-mid 90s but Wicca in all it’s Llewelyn glory?? Nothing, friends. The answer is nothing, unless you hoped to find a few odd horoscopes, a token copy of the Necronomicon stashed away behind some UFO conspiracies from the O.G. David Childress & Co. But if you were looking for anything spiritual in nature beyond the status quo puritan American heritage? Nothing, friends - except Wicca. 

So, needless to say - this was my only experience at this age with anything magically or pagan inclined whatsoever. Now, I came from an immigrant family, lived in an immigrant neighborhood, went to an international school with friends of immigrant families so we were well versed in stories of other customs and cultures - but always in an intangible way. Just stories, things of fictions or long-dead ancestors which no longer exist. I personally came from a mixed-bag family, Irish Pagan, Southern Methodist, strict Catholic, Native Shamans. So religious discussions were always heated topics of animosity - so people just didn’t  talk about it, either out of spite and grudges, or just to avoid constant fights. So though I had family that participated in pagan rites, they didn’t talk about them - and they certainly weren’t teaching me anything (not yet anyhow, more on that later) So these books we perused, for hours without buying to the chagrin of the bookstore employees, were really the only introduction and information we had to go on with regards to anything spiritually related to the magical or to the pagan - and we took it as gospel, as we didn’t know any better - and I simply thought this was the modern term used today for a whole vast array of pagans and witchcraft followers. I thought it was a modern day term for a very olde religion. That is what I truly believed for years, especially with my Irish background - and the very heavy Irish influence in Gardener’s foundation of his religion, I felt like YES - I had finally found what had been calling to me for all these years. This was right, this is what I was meant to be - as a lot of the tales he recounted I had remembered being told, or reading, in my families books and stories my entire life. I recognized the names. I knew what “feast days” he was referring to - this was my blood, my heritage - and this MUST be what my family and ancestors had been following - and this MUST have been why I felt so out of place for so long : I was meant to find this.

 It was awe inspiring, it was liberating. It was exhilarating.....until it wasn’t. One day, after restocking the shelves with a new shipment, did we stumble across the works of Gardener himself. Wherein book after book, chapter after chapter, detailed the use of ‘Skyclad’ rituals and initiations through the ‘Great Rite’ and meditation through the ‘Great Rite’, and visualization through the ‘Great Rite’, and energy rising through the ‘Great Right’  and just about anything and everything through the use of the ‘Great Rite’ or some incarnation thereof. In the particular books that we read, there were even specific instructions on how to handle ritual situations involving young children and minors, with or without parental involvement, and the importance of secrecy.  

This should be a red flag to anyone with a brain cell. 

But, for some reason, it wasn’t. My friends ate it up - the fact that they were being referred to, and treated, as adults and equals. What is more enticing to a bunch of hormonal preteens/teens who are certain they know everything, than to be treated as the adults they are very certain they absolutely are?  We even had intent debates and discussions with each other where we defended that it was completely respectable and not at all inappropriate. We hung on the language they used as proof that, see, they are not creeps - it is at our discretion, and intimacy level. Using words to be extremely specific about consent, and age, and detailing liaisons between mentors/students and members/High Priest(ess)es to not take place until they are of age and to be very mindful of that at all times. It felt all sorts of wrong to me at the time, but I was in complete denial - it just felt uncomfortable because it was new to me. We made arguments that our very strict, closed-minded Christian influence was why it felt uncomfortable. 

As a now wizened adult, not only is this “language” and position the very same argument pedophiles use to skirt the law and rationalize their actions as simple fantasies and free speech, but there is the bigger issue of the “secrecy”. Officially, on record, they are pillars of responsibility and advocates or legal boundaries and sensitivity -- but behind closed doors, don’t ask, don’t tell. Whilst making a not-so-subtle point to acknowledge all the legal boundaries, in the same breath they advocate the freewill, and consent of the member - regardless of age. Making the not so intuitive leap to assume that age is an afterthought if the member should be a willing participant. Nonevermind to the impressionable mind and intimidation or persuasion a younger member may be susceptible to - if they agree, then whose to stop them? Using the guise of secrecy as an underlying tenet of the faith. They aren’t “hiding” anything if their rites and rituals and teachings are just an understood secret knowledge only bestowed upon the most worthy individuals - or even that they are protecting the sanctity of such important rites by not publicly discussing them all willy-nilly. Nor do they bat an eye on the fact that presenting these rites and secrecy in such a prestigious manner would lead a younger audience even more inclined to actively participate, AND more inclined to also stayed shut-lipped about it -- as why wouldn’t they?? They are special. They are the chosen ones. They aren’t like everyone else - not just ANYONE would be allowed this opportunity. These are classic grooming techniques, that you can find examples of in the cases of sex offenders and sexual predators all over the world, let alone key tenets seen in nearly every other publicly recognized sex cults - so why is Wicca the exception?

What bothers me more looking back at these discussions we had is that they were completely unprovoked -- nobody had challenged us, nobody had warned us that this sounds fucked up - no one had ever tried to stop us or steer us away.  This was just our knee-jerk topic of discussion and reaction to what we CHOSE to follow. We knew from the get-go that there was something shady going on, our gut and our subconscious was screaming at us to not be those dumb little girls....and we were desperately trying to rationalize it to ourselves without realizing that’s exactly what we were doing. And our rationalized denial won - for a while, at least. 

I started straying more and more from that path ever since that day. But, as this was all I had at my disposal to build my world on, I only strayed so far. Other paths still seemed like the works of myth and legend - not “real” beliefs - so I stayed the course, just tended to keep my mouth shut and smiled and nodded when such debates continued on amongst friends. Eventually, several of my friends found local covens to join. They were sweet, and innocent. They opened up certain meetings and classes to new members as a sort of “tiral” phase - to see if it were a right fit. One of my friends in particular went to many of these. She came back with all these fantastic stories and experiences. Learned so many cool new things, and was really growing and developing and learning in the craft. She now had her very own mentor, and I found myself seething in envy. They were all growing and flourishing, and I was left in the dark with my nose stuck in books just dabbling. So I gave in, and went to some meetings with her. They were innocent and informative enough - meditation lessons, a fun Ostara celebration. Sermons on the Summerland and origin stories, God-specific lessons so we could learn all the various pantheon and what they represented. Workshops on creating candle spells, and how to properly sage and cleanse a space. We did yoga. We danced, we played instruments and tries to get into a trance-state. We had potlucks. It was fun.  And so we decided to join.....

(...continued)

[draconic-asterism]

Wake-Up Call: Dark Fire AU (1973 words) by hawk_hacks Chapters: 1/1 Fandom: The Magical Twins, Original Work Rating: Teen And Up Audiences Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings Characters: Lilyana Abelard, Oliver Valiente, Rhett Valiente, Sophia Otomo, Stephanie Warmwood, Adalia Abelard (mentioned) Summary: Lilyana wakes up in a strange place and makes some unexpected friends.

TW: Near-death experience, blood Author’s Notes: Other than minor grammatical changes here and there this fic is basically a first draft. Meaning it might be a complete mess. Read at your own risk. (it’s also on ao3 if you’re more comfortable reading it there, that’s where the first link goes)

Lilyana’s fingers desperately dug into the Earth. Her entire body felt like it was on fire and at this point, she wouldn’t be surprised if it actually was. The pain was paralyzing. It seemed the harder Lilyana tried to breathe the more her throat constricted itself.

Despite it, all Lilyana’s mind shifted elsewhere, Where’s Adalia? The question played over and over again in her mind. She had to get up. She had to find her sister. She had to-

Searing pain shot through Lilyana’s head. Groaning, she clenched her blurry eyes shut. I’m going to die here, she thought distantly as her consciousness slipped away. Breath slowing to an oddly soothing rhythm. 

Goodnight Adalia.

“Rhett! Rhett get over here, someone’s hurt!”

- “Did we really have to bring her in the house?”

“She was dying!”

“Yeah, but we could have helped her die less outside. Now I’m going to have to clean up all this weirdly colored blood-”

Lilyana shot up with a gasp. Almost immediately she hit her head and was sent back down with a groan.

“Ow-!” an unfamiliar voice exclaimed, “Are- are you alright? You just ran into me pretty hard.”

Cautiously, Lilyana opened her eyes. Looking down at her was a human boy that was presumably at least a year or two younger than she was. His olive-green eyes were filled with worry. 

Again he spoke up, “Are you alright?”. Lilyana hesitated to answer. 

Am I alright?

Then it hit her that she was most definitely not alright.

“Where’s Adalia?!” Lilyana shot up once more but was stopped by the stabbing feeling that shot through her abdomen. A hand gently pushed her back down. 

“Be careful!” the boy warned her “If you’re not you’ll open your wound and it’ll start bleeding again.”

“Yeah and there’s already enough that needs to be cleaned up as it is,” a different human spoke up. Lilyana shifted to see him standing in the doorway, leaning against the frame. He was wearing a dark orange jacket with a lighter shirt, “Try not to ruin the couch even more.”

The younger boy gave the other a glare before turning back to Lily, “If you don’t mind me asking- who’s Adalia? You said that name a lot when we were bringing you back here.”

“She’s.. my sister” Lilyana admitted quietly “I- we came to Earth so I could tell her something important-” 

The book.

Lilyana’s eyes darted around the room she was in. There wasn’t that much to see but it was clear that the book wasn’t there. Which means-

Oh no no no no no nonononononononononononononononononononononon-

“Hey hey! It’s alright!” Lilyana jumped as there was suddenly a hand on her own, “I’m sure your sister is fine. She’s probably looking for you right now!” She hadn’t realized how heavily she had begun to breathe. 

The human in the doorway spoke up again, “I hope she figures out you’re here soon so you can stop being our problem.”

“Rhett!” the boy next to Lilyana shouted, “Be nice!”

“Don’t worry it’s ok!” Lilyana said quickly before the two could start arguing “It’s probably a bit much to have a stranger in your house bleeding all over the place just.. Please stop yelling.”

“Sorry” the boy apologized, his hand still on Lily’s “the yelling probably isn’t helping with your stress either.”

“Like I said, it’s ok- um” the sentence caught in Lilyana’s throat.

“Oh right! I haven’t even introduced myself yet” the boy said, “I’m Oliver, and the person over there is my brother Rhett.”

Lily gave a small smile, “Well nice to meet you Oliver. I’m Lilyana.”

“Lilyana.. that’s a nice name” Oliver said, returning with his own smile. It was enough to ease Lilyana for a moment despite everything. It was nice to have someone smile at her for once, It’s been so long..

“Oh! She’s awake. Why didn’t either of you come tell me?” the now third unfamiliar voice made Lilyana tense. Something about the human’s tone brought back her unease. 

“Well, I figured she’d need some time to recover before she had you poking and prodding at her” Rhett said with a scoff. The new human rolled her eyes.

“Honestly Rhett, as one of the only people here with vaguely comprehensive medical knowledge it’s kind of important for me to be ‘poking and prodding at her’” the human retorted. 

“That’s Sophie,” Oliver said offhandedly as the two others began to bicker in the doorway “she’s really smart and super into studying- stuff. I don’t actually know what she studies” he admitted. 

Lilyana eyed the two humans wearily. She could feel her head start to spin, “Is there anyone else here I need to know about?” she asked. 

“Well there’s-”

“Can’t you two go five seconds without having some kind of argument?” Lilyana swallowed a groan at the sound of a fourth new voice. Though usually she wouldn’t mind meeting so many new people, it was draining enough on top of everything else she was worried about.

Like Adalia.

“That’s Stef, another friend of mine” Oliver explained “Don’t worry about meeting anyone else. There’s no one else here right now” he added quickly.

Lilyana sighed in relief. At this point, she wasn’t sure if she could handle being introduced to anyone else.

“I’m done having this conversation Rhett because I don’t know if you remember but there’s someone injured on the couch that I need to check up on” Sophie deadpanned before walking over to Lily and Oliver. The boy scooted over so that she could have access to Lily.

“Sorry if Rhett has been rude to you at all,” Sophie apologized as she kneeled down “It’s nothing personal. He’s like that with everyone.”

Now that she was closer Lilyana could see that Sophie’s eyes were two different colors. With her right being a silver color and her left being brown. Lilyana raised an eyebrow, Wonder what that’s about.

“She can understand English right Oliver?” Sophie’s question snapped Lilyana back to attention. 

“Oh, yeah! She’s been through a lot though so she’s still pretty confused. Her name is Lilyana by the way” Oliver explained. 

“I was just wondering because she was looking at me like I asked her what the sky tastes like,” Sophie said. 

Lilyana winced “Sorry, I have a lot on my mind.”

Sophie simply nodded as she moved Lilyana’s arm and lifted up her shirt. It took all the willpower in the world not to squirm. Lilyana looked down to see bandage wrapped around her midsection. The thing was nearly cyan-blue with how much blood had bled through. She swallowed roughly as Sophie put her hand on the bandage.

“How has your side been feeling?” the human asked. 

Admittedly Lilyana hadn’t been thinking much of her injury, but now that the other mentioned it the thing ached with a dull throb, “It hurts a bit” Lilyana said.

Sophie frowned, moving her hand and putting Lily’s shirt back down, “How much is a bit? I need something more specific than that” she said, “can you give me a number out of ten?”

“Uh- out of ten?” Lilyana asked.

“Do you not know what numbers are?” Sophie asked, suddenly leaning in with curious eyes. 

Lilyana sunk back a bit on the couch, “I know what numbers are, it's just- we have different numbers from humans. I haven’t had the time to learn them yet.”

“Well, in that case, could you hold up the number of fingers instead? That should still translate roughly as the same thing” Sophie asked. 

After a moment Lilyana held up four fingers. Sophie nodded. 

“I’d say a four on the pain scale is pretty good all things considered,” the human said “Though it would probably be a good idea to give you a fresh set of bandages before I leave you to rest again. Oliver, can you help me sit her up?”

“Sure!” Oliver said, standing up. Together the two slowly helped Lilyana get upright.

“Do you think you could hold up your shirt for me?” Sophie asked. Lilyana simply nodded, doing what the other asked. She wasn’t too keen on seeing the damage that had been done to her. Seeing the floor covered with her blood was enough to make her feel sick. 

Now that she was up Lilyana realized that Rhett and Stef were gone. A small bit of relief washed over her. Though she didn’t know the other much Lily was sure Rhett wouldn’t be pleased with Sophie changing her bandages like this. Lilyana wasn’t exactly pleased with it either, I really wish she didn’t have to do this-

“So Lilyana” Oliver said suddenly “What’s your sister like?”

Lily gave him a grateful look, “Adalia is- something” she said with a nervous chuckle “A bit aggressive and stubborn sometimes, but she means well.”

Sophie scoffed, “She sounds like Rhett”. Lilyana tensed as she felt the human begin to peel the bandages off, Adalia. Keep talking about Adalia.

“Trust me, Rhett is tame compared to how she can get,” Lilyana said “But I still love her. Like I said she means well. She’s just a bit misguided.”

It’s more than a bit.

“I’m sure she’s great!” Oliver assured her “Does she look like you?”

Lilyana shivered as her wound was exposed to the cold air.

Keep talking about Adalia. 

“Kind of. She has this long, messy blond bush on her head that she calls hair” Lilyana joked “I’ve been told before that we have the same eyes. Don’t really know how true that is but I like to believe it.”

Oliver laughed “Do you think we’d ever be able to meet her?” he asked. Lilyana frowned.

She very well knew the answer to that question.

“Maybe” Lilyana shrugged, trying not to think about the fresh bandages that were being wrapped around her “I’m sure she would like all of you.”

Lies.

“And done. That should be good for now” Sophie said as she gave Lily’s side a pat. The other was quick to put her shirt back down with a sigh. 

“Now I’m admittedly tempted to ask what exactly you are with the cyan-colored blood and gills but I’d rather not have Rhett materialize out of thin air to yell at me,” Sophie said with a completely straight face “So I’ll leave you to rest for now.”

Lilyana’s eyes widened at the mention of her gills. I guess it makes sense that she would know. Still the idea that Sophie did made her uneasy. Everything about the human seemed to carry an unsettling feeling beneath the surface, though Lily couldn’t quite pinpoint why. 

“I’ll stay with her in case she needs anything,” Oliver said before turning to Lilyana “Unless you need some space right now, which I’d understand!”

Please don’t leave me alone with my thoughts.

“No, you can stay! I don’t mind the company” Lilyana said quickly.

“Call me back if anything happens Oliver” and with that Sophie was gone. 

“I guess it’s just us now. Do you need help laying back down?” Oliver asked. 

Lilyana shook her head, “No I think I got it” carefully she brought her legs back onto the couch and she began to ease down. Oliver sat down on the floor next to her before perking up.

“Do you need anything? Like food or water? In all this chaos I forgot to ask” Oliver said sheepishly. 

In all honesty part of Lilyana was starving, but she shook her head again, “I’m fine. I think getting some more rest would probably be the best right now.” She closed her eyes.

“Oh ok, I’ll be quiet then.”

With that, the room fell into silence.

...

Adalia’s still out there.

Does she know yet?

Has she read the book?

Does she even have it?

What will she do when she finds out?

…

Will she regret killing me?

[blxckdamask]

Trashcan’s Fic Rec: July ‘19

i know this is really late but i was busy so i couldnt really get this done. an yway,,, yall know the drill by now,, this has a bunch of bnha (mostly bkdk) and some rairpairs aswell as some drarry, odaat and b99.

BNHA Fics:

{bakudeku}

Roadmap of Our Lives by erza_mikazuki | 4k | 1/1| nsfw | emotional sex | body worship | scars | fluffy smut is my shit ngl

When Izuku's insecurities about his scarred body hit him full throttle, Katsuki is there to show Izuku just how beautiful scars can be.

4 AM Inquiry by SecretKiwi | 3k | 1/1 | established relationship | marriage proposal | fluff | this fic is how im tryna be 

Katsuki's reflection above the sink stared back. Eyes still drowsy with a hint of a shadow beneath them. Hair more of a mess than he would prefer, but he was plenty awake now.

All because of Deku.

~

Katsuki reflects at 4 am.

Happy Pride by PrinceTriscuit | 2k | 1/1 | getting together | gay fluff | coming out | wholesome 

Pride has always had a special place in Midoriya Izuku's heart.

Love For a Friend by Jessica14 | 2k | 1/1 | magic au | ghost izuku | protective bakugou | angst with a happy ending | idk how to summarize the tags just read it its so fucking good

"I trusted you and you had me murdered!” Midoriya wailed, anguished. Bakugou twitched focusing on the spell that made him capture Midoriya's soul.

“Shut up! You got yourself killed!”

“I didn't! You said you had my back and I thought you had it! But you didn't! Kacchan! My body!” Midoriya cried as he watched Bakugou lug his limp body through the forest.

This is what happens when Bakugou tries to become best friends with Midoriya again.

Say It Again by bkdkwritingsdump | 2k | 1/1 | angst | quirk mishap | angry izuku | established relationship | guilty bakugou 

Katsuki doesn't know what's wrong with Izuku. Is he mad? What is he mad about? What did Katsuki do!? All he knows is that he can't let Izuku break up with him. Not while they're still keeping their relationship a secret.

Or

Izuku forces Katsuki to apologize for everything he's ever done to hurt him.

Best Friends by artindistress | 13k | 2/2 | fem!deku | best friends au | getting together | minor izuchako | fluff | friends to lovers | this shit is so fluffy im in love

Bakugou and Midoriya have been best friends since... well, since either of them could remember. But both harbor unspoken feelings for the other, will this be an end to their friendship?

Foster-Mates by bkdkwritingsdump | 32k | 15/15 | hybrids au | cat!katsuki & dog!izuku | getting together | tw past abuse | tw self harm | angst | angst with a happy ending | eventual nsfw 

Izuku, a dog hybrid, has lived with his owner Toshinori, a retired hybrid psychologist, his whole life. He takes on some of the shelter’s most difficult cases as fosters, and so Izuku has learned to be the best foster-mate possible for scared and abused hybrids. At first, Katsuki, a cat hybrid who’s been kept in a tiny apartment nearly his whole life, seems just like any of the other awful cases they’ve seen, but somehow, Izuku and him grow a lot closer than usual over the course of his stay. Eventually, the question becomes: could he stay forever?

bellflowers by vannral | 15k | 4/4 | hanahaki disease au | getting together angst | angst with a happy ending | unrequited love (kinda) | eventual fluff

“Izuku knows what the Hanahaki does. He knows what his options are, and sure, they aren’t great. In fact, they’re pretty horrible. The list is short and daunting. There are still flower petals on his pillow."

In which Izuku has Hanahaki Disease, and Katsuki's furious.

TFW Your Roommate Brings a Baby Home by Hotshott (Artemystic) | 5k | 1/1 | friends to lovers | fluffy fluff | baby used as a plot device | this is just pure fluff guys its great 

And you're crushing on him, and he's just so cute, and the baby's cute, and what's a guy to do, anyway?

family dinners by luciimariiellii | 1k | 1/1 | family fluff | friends to lovers | pining for days | this is so cute i love 

Ever since they were little, Izuku and Katsuki’s families have had family dinners. It’s just them and their parents, and that’s fine. Until more people get dragged in. (And try to set Izuku and Katsuki up.)

for twinstars week day four - family

{todobaku}

cold, hot and so damn soft by orphan_account | 7k | 1/1 | established relationship | light angst | fluff | romance 

It started from a normal evening to a small argument that made them go on vacation that made Katsuki realize that he wanted something more from Shouto.

The Shitty Parents Squad (series) by YinYangZodiac | 8 works | 15k | tw child abuse | tw domestic abuse | caring characters | ooc kinda | this is very soft but very sad and im so in love with this series 

Bakugou, Denki, Midoriya, Momo and Todoroki all end up in a McDonald's one early morning. A suggestion of a movie and a credit card reveal later and the teens are off to spend the day together.

They all know that it's Todoroki's father's credit card, but none of them care.

Eyes Aren't Always Windows To The Soul by Alienqueen42, TheLibrarian9 | 1k | 1/1 | deaf!bakugou & blind!todoroki | emotional hurt/comfort | heavy angst | light fluff | getting together 

Bakugo and Todoroki both find themselves living together with disabilities, helping each other get by. In doing so, they fall in love.

{rairpairs & other ships} 

staring into our bright future by wonduhhwoman | kacchako | 9k | 1/1 | quirk mishap | future and present uraraka swap bodies | established relationship | developing relationship | fluff 

“You haven’t changed at all, have ya?” he observed, pinching her cheek affectionately.

Ochako batted his hand away from her cheeks for the second time that morning, wondering if he had a thing for them. “That doesn’t even make any sense, Bakugou. I’m from the past. Of course I haven’t changed.”

“Makes perfect sense,” Bakugou countered, closing his teeth around a bite of eggs. “You were doing this same shit yesterday morning.”

-

My entry for the day 2 prompt of Kacchako week: otherworldly.

Five Times his Service Dog helps Shinsou and One Time Bakugou does by SupaKawaiiDesu | bakushin | 7k |1/1 | tw panic attacks and disorders | hoh!bakugou | fluff | college au | strangers to friends to lovers | fluff | light angst | fluffy shit we fuckin stan this rairpair

Bakugou watches with something akin to affection when Shinsou starts playing with his dog until she jumps all around him and is barking excitedly. He has never seen the both of them so content before. The Sergeant is always so concentrated at College grounds, either that or she’s calm but still looking out for him. Bakugou has seen them during lectures, at lunch at their usual table, during their ways to Bakugou’s dorm and to Shinsou’s apartment off campus, he has seen them through their late-night-skyping sessions and in countless pictures on Sergeant Barkowitz’ Instagram. He has seen their best but not their worst, and that makes Bakugou wonder if he’ll ever be such a great companion to Shinsou like the Sergeant is.

A Hero's Goodbye by Gentle_Love_9 | erasermic | 1k | 1/1 | death fic | major angst | somehow fluffy as well?? | bitches i cried so fuckin hard when i read this omf

"Shouta could have never imagined reaching this point in his life. He honestly expected to die at some point when he was younger, alone somewhere in an alleyway, killed in action during his hero work maybe."

Instead he's in a warm hospital bed and surrounded by some of the people he cares most about.

On These Unsteady Legs by Spider_Lilly | erasermic | 4k | 1/1 | shinsou and eri centric | hurt/comfort | angst with a happy ending

Shinsou Hitoshi had never had a family before, and he refuses to screw it up. But when a villain attacks him and his new little sister, he may have lost the only family he's ever had.

We love and respect Bakugou in this house (series)  by Bakudont_be_weird | bakudabi | 5 works | 54k | tw rape/non-con | abo | alpha!dabi & omega!bakugou | very nsfw | stockholm syndrome | mpreg | fucked up fluff | angst with somewhat of a happy ending ig | ngl this ship is suppose to be fucked up and problematic but this series is really fucking good if you're into fucked up fics

Bakugou never wanted to be mated. Especially not to a villain but it didn't look like he had any choice in the matter. The only question now was: will he ever escape?

OR,

The author loves Bakugou and loves to make him suffer so Dabi kidnaps him and forces our favourite blasty boy to become his mate. It goes from bad to good to bad and back to good.

Days in a Crucible by doop_doop | bakuiida | 40k | 9/9 | kidnapping | emotional hurt/comfort | getting together | developing relationship | acquaintances to lovers | mentions of past todobaku | ptsd

While working together as pro heroes, Iida, Bakugou and Todoroki are taken captive. The situation is strange: none of their Quirks work, and they aren’t tortured or killed – in fact, they never see their captors. There is nothing to do but wait.

Things are tense between the three of them, but Iida finds the situation bringing him closer to Bakugou than he thought possible. But who knows how this will change things between when they get out…

Pet Names by BluePlanetTrash | bakuiida | 4k | 2/? | quirk mishap | ooc | flufffffffff | overuse of petnames | #LetBakugouBeSweet2k19 | iida calls bakugou sugar and thats all that matters

Quirk: Infatuation - The user of this quirk affects two people by touching them at the same time, they then fall into a state of infatuation with each other; they could be affected by this for up to a week.

Iida and Bakugou get affected by an infatuation quirk that makes them be sweet to each other. So sweet, that it could give you cavities. Warning: This story will contain an excessive amount of pet names, hence the title.

Other Fandoms Fics: 

Portrait of a Young Girl by trishjames | drarry | 8k | 1/1 | established relationship | trans!teddy | internalised homophobia | family feels | light angst with a happy ending

Recently married, Harry and Draco are tasked with raising a four-year old Teddy, whose emerging gender identity brings up an array of questions, fears, and revelations for them when they realise that Teddy might be transgender.

Over the Moon and Up the Duff by hdmpregmod | drarry | 4k | 1/1 | established relationship | mpreg | fluff | harry is a little shit

When Draco learns he's pregnant again, he blames his husband. Harry, however, couldn't be happier.

Boyfriends From College by Impossibly_Izzy | peraltiago | 1k | 1/1 | bi!jake | established peraltiago | jake dated schneider and john mulaney | self discovery 

Jake dated two guys in college, but doesn't realise until he introduces one of them to Amy.

broken compass, still moving forward by confessionofaking | odaat (no pairing) | 1k | 1/1 | trans!schneider | coming out | misunderstandings | trans schneider stans come get yalls juice

The family learns a secret about Schneider

lemongrass and sleep, apple juice and peach by riverblujay | odaat (no pairings) | transgirl!alex | self discovery | coming out | syd is a great friend 

alex said the far scarier sentence that at the same time was more comforting than anything the teenager had ever heard before. “she,” alex mumbled under his- no, her- breath, voice beginning to choke up, “was sitting on her bed, in her room. her,” he- she, she- sighed and spoke just a little louder, just a little surer. “her name is alex, and she’s a girl.” alex smiled to herself, so small it was probably barely considered one. she didn’t care; she finally felt whole.

or: in another world, elena isn't the only alvarez daughter (but it takes alex some time to figure that out)

[notesofarichlycolorednight]

Hi,pal! I'm loving "It's the perfect story"! However, the subject I'm talking about doesn't directly to the fic. By what I know, people don't hate Silena because she was the spy,it's more like they think her being seduced/manipulated into doing it is detracting to her character. Many posts say that's very insulting to teen girls, or her cause should be something like "her cabin was being disrespected"(out of character IMO, but I'll talk about it later)...

Continuation. Or “the demigods were being mistreated by the gods”(not a bad one,but Silena didn’t really feel the worst of the gods IMO. Not like Luke, Chris or Tori in the fic). People are entitled to their opinions, but I disagree. About the “disrespected cabin stuff”,Silena is defensive in a blunt, straightforward way when it happens. Examples: how she wanted to fight the Huntresses when they said love was worthless;or when people were surprised by her magic knowledge,and she looked offended.

Cont. Besides, those behaviors show that Silena can be quite passionate and proud, what probably made her vulnerable to manipulation(her romantic nature didn’t help). Besides, Silena herself thought she was saving lives. I believe Luke’s words would sound truer to her if she cared about him than from a dispassionate perspective. Besides, if Luke managed to lure Percy to near death with a friendly smile and soda,despite Percy’s instincts saying no,I believe he could do it to Silena…

Cont. By what I read, your only issue was the age. However, I think that was something like “death of the author” in canon,as she didn’t get one. In fact, I rather like the idea of Silena being an older camper,including than Charles(if 18 years old girls date boys in their 20’s…),both in canon and in your fic. In your fic,it could make her Tori ’ s peer. In canon,it’d fit the whole “role model” stuff we had going on HoO.

what’s up dude! thanks, i’m glad to hear you’re enjoying it!

that’s how i interpreted it when i read the books (or how i remember interpreting it, at least, i haven’t read the series in a while) like, being the spy meant she was a traitor, which is also a comment abt her character (i.e., may she’s not the greatest person–for the lack of a better word–bc she was a traitor). when clarisses declares she’s a hero, i assumed it was supposed to be juxtaposed to her being a traitor. which is a roundabout way to say that the ultimate end is the same, whereas the perspective is different? but i can see where others are coming from–that the campers would be more mad bc of the fact that she was easily manipulated by luke, rather than her being the spy

i guess i can see where ppl are coming from regarding it being an insult to teen girls (i’d really like to see those posts tho, bc i actually haven’t seen anyone talk abt that–i somehow manage to avoid discourse like we’re two opposing magnets, my d-list x-men power), bc it plays off the stereotype that teen girls are so boy crazy, they’re easily manipulated by any good-looking guy that smiles in their direction. it doesn’t help that she’s a child of aphrodite. and what i mean by that is, i think, ppl often water down what aphrodite is the goddess of. when ppl say, “she’s the goddess of love and beauty” ppl often think she’s the goddess of, “being vain and romantic/sexual love” (not true btw, fite me, i will gladly jump into that discourse)

but anyway, back to my main point, i can see how it may play off a teen girl stereotype (rick is good at doing that sometimes, which isn’t entirely his fault, bc like i said abt toxic masculinity, it’s so ingrained in our society, it’s hard to unlearn and we often fall into those stereotypes if we’re not fully aware of them and consciously thinking about them), but i also don’t entirely agree with that argument, either

now i could be wrong, esp since i haven’t read any of this discourse, so i haven’t read ppl’s reasoning or arguments, but it sounds very surface-level White Feminism™ and what i mean by that is that there are more grey areas to this argument, okay, so put away your pitchforks and put out your torches and, i mean, also that this argument is coming from ppl who want to seem like they’re woke, but then turn around and continue to do or say things that are insidiously bigoted

like i said, i can see how it plays into a stereotype, but if we’re going by rick’s canon (which we totally don’t have to, but for this argument’s sake we are) she’s young and impressionable, luke is handsome and charming–if another young person were in her position, we’d probably see the same thing. young ppl are easy to manipulate, they just are. they’re still learning abt the world, and how it works, and that maybe not everyone has good intentions. not to mention they’re still trying to find themselves, and they look to peers, mentors, and ppl who are respected (for whatever reason) for cues to how they should act and think. it’s like trying on clothes or taste-testing foods–they’re trying out opinions. if they don’t like the “taste” of an opinion, then they learn, grow, and change. some ppl instantly connect with an opinion (which could be bigoted or not) and not explore further, or could be sheltered and just not have the opportunity to experience anything else.

the opinion here: the gods are bad. the person she’s looking to for guidance: luke. plain and simple

and, as you say anon, percy even fell for luke’s charms (despite the warning signs!! and percy is most def Not Straight, so luke was also using that fact against percy as well, whether rick luke knew it or not). so, ya know, there ya go

now, i think rick chose a child of aphrodite, and a girl, bc he thought he was turning a trope on its head–you’d never expect (from the stereotype of what aphrodite stands for) silena to be a spy, to work for kronos of all ppl titans. do you see what i mean? i think he was going for an elle woods effect–except in the polar opposite direction. the ends is the same, where this girl who is often underestimated (like elle) turns out to do something no one expected of her (in silena’s case, being the spy, which takes a lot of guts, nerve, and smarts–the opposite of what ppl expect from aphrodite, based on a reductive stereotype)

and that’s where the real issue lies, not that she was a teen girl, but rather some of the decisions the author made under wrong assumptions

i agree that the alternatives aren’t as sincere or make as much sense. silena didn’t experience a whole lot of strife regarding her mom or the gods in general, so she’d have no reason to hate them as luke does–she’d have no reason to be the spy for luke if he were to simply use that argument to get her to kronos’s side. and maybe she would’ve joined kronos under “her cabin was being disrespected,” however, it was’t being disrespected by the gods themselves, right? not like the minor gods, not like nemesis or hecate. the disrespect comes more from the ppl around her–the ppl who assume the wrong things abt aphrodite when they hear the words “love” and “beauty.” so that alternative reason doesn’t hold a lot of water if you really think abt it

i also agree with you: that her passion and pride made her more easily manipulated, and also that luke’s words would mean more coming from a more passionate and personal perspective. luke fed her lines that played into her character (like how kronos fed luke lines that played into his hatred for the gods). if she felt passionate abt helping save ppl (and it’s coming from someone she likes, someone she looks up to), then she’d  be the spy for sure. if she had a crush on luke, more for him to use against her, right? that’s just how it goes sometimes, ya know? her crush are her rose-colored glasses, add that on top of “you’d be saving lives” and, well, luke’s got her wrapped around kronos’s finger

yeah, the age thing is a big sticking point for me, just bc based on the timeline of things, she’s several years younger than luke (which make his kiss, in my story, really gross). if beckendorf was going to college during tlo, he was probably at the least 18, and silena was probably around the same age. by this time, luke is 23, so that means that she’s abt 5 years younger? is five years a huge deal between older ppl (like mid- to late-twenties and beyond)? not at all. but with younger ppl (teens and early twenties), it’s a HUGE gap in age, and a HUGE deal.

but like you say, i think rick is hitting that point of “death of the author” (esp with more recent events…btw, jason is totally alive and well, and if you think or try to tell me differently, then you can meet me in a denny’s parking lot at 3am), so we can totes not follow canon and age both silena and beckendorf up. not to mention, there’s no specific age that ppl go to college (just in general most ppl starting college are from 17-20) so it’s completely fine for beckendorf to be going to college at 22, 23. and a 2 yr age difference (regarding beckendorf at 20, dating silena at 18) is totes better than a 5 yr difference for sure

i really like tori and silena being peers, and i if i had been more comfortable breaking canon (and knew what i know now, then), it would’ve been fun to write (but eeeyyy, it’s fun to think abt, so there may be headcanons in your future regarding this). finally, you’re right, i think it would make “silena as a role model” so much more powerful if she had been/was older in canon

thanks for sending these in! i had a lot of fun talking and thinking abt all the points you brought up/made, and i hope to continue this discussion, if you want!

[owlyouth]

Films: The Best Films of 2019 So Far (January-April)

These are the films i’ve seen so far this year, ranked. There are a couple which aren’t from 2019, but almost none from before 2017. 

I’ve left out a couple that are either rewatches (Reservoir Dogs) or old classics i’ve never got round to watching before (Three Colours: Blue).

See what you think.

The Favourite / Palace intrigue, absurdist costumes, comedy and insane dialogue this film was fun in the smartest and most rewarding ways possible. A completely entertaining and self-contained original script that seemed perfectly tempered by its long gestation and edits from different authors. (Award for Best Wigs and the Word ‘Cuntstruck’)

Beast / This film is the most twisted, non-twisted film. Like being gently stroked by someone you don’t trust only to have a bucket of gravel thrown over your head. Never has a film’s title hovered over it so emphatically and in such a way that it gives it an extra dynamic poetics. Both the leads hold the camera in frightening and surprising ways throughout. Strangely similar to Burning and Gone Girl. Also the better of the two Jessie Buckley films on this list. (Award for being like Gone Girl, but British and Better)

Us / Better than Her, You, and Them, this was just as good as almost everyone said. A truly great genre film that held its audience with a Jordan Peele stranglehold that is unrivalled in mainstream cinema. The film seemed to suffer with audiences in some cases, but only because they were comparing it to Get Out. Both are exceptional, I don’t have a favourite, but while it’s an inevitable comparison, it also makes no sense, they are both two of the best films of the last few years. (Award for Best Film to Watch in the Cinema)

Wind River / This was also a great genre film, but where Us made you grab your chair, Wind River trusts you to navigate along with it in a way that’s slow, careful and methodical. I found this incredibly engrossing, similar to Winter’s Bone in some ways, and my favourite of the frontier trilogy written by Taylor Sheridan - the other two are Sicario and Hell or High Water. (Award for Best Nick Cave Humming Soundtrack)

You Were Never Really Here / This film from the maker of We Need To Talk About Kevin and Ratcatcher is just as dark as its predecessors. It is also a very self-contained story of a hitman rescuing a girl from high-powered brothel. Not for the faint hearted, but incredibly engrossing and just a great gut-punch of a film. (Award for Best Taxi Driver Remake)

Leave No Trace / I just watched this one and while I didn’t love it as much as Mark Kermode (it was his favourite film of last year), I did love the length of time you got to spend with the characters. A father and daughter living out in the woods, have to navigate changes; films with this little content make you realise how jam-packed most mainstream films are, and how little the extra stuff really adds. The sense of the outside and of alienation from mainstream society slowly sinks in so that by the end, I felt a bit surrounded by all the stuff in my room. (The Kelly Reichardt Award for film without much of a Conventional Plot)

Burning / This is based on a Murakami short story, is also a slow-moving film. It reminded me of The Square, but where that film’s downward spiral feels like walking through warm mud, this feels like a breeze. An interesting and kind of awe-inspiring breeze. The dread in this is so well measured and balanced, the tone through the whole thing works perfectly and the performances are incredible. (Award for Best Hobby)

Jellyfish / This is a heartbreaking film about a 15-year-old girl in Margate who - due to an absentee dad and a mum with mental health and substance abuse problems - is trying to care for her two younger siblings and her mum, while keeping up with school and a job. Liv Hill is completely engaging and manages to look exactly as young as a 15-year-old and as old as someone with so much on their shoulders. The film is incredibly low budget and honest and the stand-up comedy (you heard me) that the main character performs as an escape is also brilliant. (Award for Most Supportive Teacher)

Fighting With My Family / From the low budget to the high. I’m not sure why I enjoyed this film so much, it’s a pretty straightforward feel-good film about a rags-to-riches wrestler. Based on a priceless Channel 4 documentary and directed by Stephen Merchant for maximum Norwich-girl-in-Los-Angeles comedy it is equal parts silly and warm, and it left a lump in my throat. (Award for Most Generic Regional Accents)

Ruby Sparks / This is slightly older than the other films on this list (2012), but i’d forgotten how good it was until I watched Wildfire and was reminded about Zoe Kazan and Paul Dano (see more at no. 17). Anyway it is a great feminist read on the idea of the female muse and tortured male author. In one sentence: a successful writer’s new character suddenly appears in his house, and other people can see her too. It’s got the feel of a Charlie Kaufman film, but without the self-hatred. (Award for Best Antonio Banderas Cameo)

Wild Rose / Another heart-warmer here, but with some grit thanks to the relationship between Julie Walters and Jessie Buckley. The film has a strange tonal shift at the end where every imaginable loose end gets resolved, which is a shame because the rest of it is understated and down-to-the-ground. (Award for Best Mince)

Spiderman: Into the Spider Verse / This one went under a lot of people’s radars. An animated film with the closest visual style to actual graphic novels ever, it is fun and funny, though I wasn’t all that invested by the end. Lots of people said that it surprised them, which had me expecting something more surprising, still lots of laughs and visually awesome. (Award for Best Psychedelic Fight to the Death, and Best Pig Spider)

Green Book / This film suffered massively for having won the Best Picture Oscar. If it weren’t for that we could have celebrated the good bits and not have to dissect it as The Symbol of Racial Retrenchment in Hollywood. There’s an argument to say that the film needs that kind of dissection either way, and I agree, but the positives in here - the lead performance from Mahershala Ali in particular - are worth celebrating, a little. (Award for Best Film with ‘Book’ in the Title)

The Spy Who Dumped Me / This is silly fun, but also one long car chase. A film that belongs on Netflix. Kate McKinnon is always hilarious, but it’s still jarring to watch SNL-style-sketch-acting in a film. (Award for Best Uber Ride) 

Dumplin’ / ‘With the best will in the world’ should be the tagline for this film. It makes sense that this sits on Netflix forever, for that day when you and your mates want to watch something without thinking about anything. But it is also not as good as similar films. See Little Miss Sunshine for further details. (Award for Best Jennifer Aniston Vehicle)

Three Identical Strangers / A documentary that got a lot of hype -  identical triplets who only discovered each other’s existence in their late teens, became minor celebrities and then find out about how they were separated at birth. The story is incredible, but is told in a pretty plain way and by the end I was wondering why I was interested. (Award for Best Kvetching)

Hell or High Water / This is the weakest of Taylor Sheridan’s frontier trilogy (with Wind River and Sicario coming in first and second respectively for me) but it is still a good story well told. It is the story of two bank robbing brothers out to raise enough money for one of them to look after his kids. For me the two central performances didn’t work, Chris Pine is wooden (sorry) and Ben Foster is irritating as the more erratic brother. Jeff Bridges and Gil Birmingham to drag the film into some deeper and more interesting place. (Award for Best Car Switching Technique)

Wildlife / I had high hopes for Wildlife after enjoying Ruby Sparks a lot, Paul Dano and Zoe Kazan co-wrote this and Paul Dano directed as well. While this kind of sad, simmering story might have been carried by grand naturalistic symbolism when Terrence Malick was at his height (not now, but check out Days of Heaven), this film seems to be dragged by actors all too aware that they're in a film directed by an actor. (Award for film most like an American Novel from the 1950s)

Unicorn Store / This film is a mess. It only goes above Crazy Rich Asians because of the sweet relationship between Brie Larson and Mamoudou Athie, which feels like the kind of romance that can only happen in a film with such low stakes. (Award for Having a Film with no Script Supervision)

Crazy Rich Asians / While celebrating the victory for representation of an all-Asian mainstream romantic comedy, this is still a pretty depressing film to watch. It is clearly not a film made for me, but I also think there are films made for other audiences which have more skill, with less annoying people, and don’t seem to celebrate money quite so much. Yes to the representation, this Awkwafina music video, and Ken Jeong eating spicy chicken wings. No to the rest. (Award for Most Watery Walk Down the Aisle)

[alwaysanotherooc]

The De Vega Siblings

#LoveHacks -Kamella "Kella" Aurelia De Vega, Paid Blogger (26 At the time of #Lovehacks) (27 At the time of The Freshman) (35 At the time of Endless Summer)

The Freshman -Kasen "Kessa" Sofia De Vega, English Major/Author (17 At the time of #Lovehacks) (18 At the time of The Freshman) (25 At the time of Endless Summer)

Endless Summer -Kemen "Ken" Rodrigo De Vega, History Major (13 At the time of #Lovehacks) (14 At the time of The Freshman) (21 At the time of Endless Summer)

Just a forewarning: possible triggers, mention of poverty, child neglect, hinted child abuse, anxiety, disassociation, and dangerous living situations. Happy ending, but still. Also, none of this is canon, at all. I just decided to connect the MC’s of LoveHacks, The Freshman, and Endless Summer because I could, even though by now it goes directly against canon.

Brief Family History =============== The De Vegas

-The De Vega siblings were born in Harlem, NYC, New York, USA, to Katy De Vega and Dougie Santiago.  -Kella, being the oldest by nine years, saw the most of their parents, and remembers all of it but says nothing about them. Kessa, the middle child, saw very little of their father, and her best memory of him is the rather violent fight he had with their mother after being told she was pregnant again. Ken has no memories of his parents at all, and has rarely felt the desire to.  -Kella was 15, Kessa was 6, and Ken was 2 when their mother left their apartment one day and never came back. They waited over a month, until the landlord came looking for their mother for the overdue rent. Then that night, Kella went through the apartment and picked out everything of value, packed up a bag for each of them, and set out to find them somewhere else to live. -Kella kept her siblings on the move around their school district, making sure that no matter what, her brother and sister had food and a warm bed. Kella often said she needed to stay late at the library to study, which, early on was much to the irritation of Kessa, but the librarians never bother the three of them, all the way in the dustiest section of the library, covered only by thin winter coats and pillowed on each other's arms. -Kella only told one adult what was going on, her sister's English teacher, who was curious why Kella showed up to Kessa's Parent Teacher night instead of their mother. Kella confessed, building quickly into hysterics, that their mother was gone, and it was only her keeping them together. Kessa, who was nearby holding the hand of a distracted Ken, overhead her sister sob, "I don't want to lose them, and I don't want them to be taken away from me!"  -Kella raised Kessa and Ken, slowly sold off pieces from their old apartment for money to buy food and clothes and occasionally, medicine for her siblings. Kella was as gentle as she could be, as kind as life would let her be, but as vicious and diamond-hard as she had to be, she was protector and sister, defender and mother. Provider in all forms of the word. As a result, Kella became a rather angry child, ready to spring into action at any moment, a thousand perfectly composed arguments poised on her tongue, and a knife up her sleeve if things went wrong. -Kessa became more and more aware of their situation as she grew up, and worked very hard to take any pressure she could off of her older sister. Kessa was fine, and she dedicated her role in their family into being completely fine. As a result, Kessa became slightly neglected, emotionally. Kella worked herself to the bone to earn enough money to provide, and caring for a baby was no easy task in itself. Kessa allows people to take advantage of her giving nature, to take too much from Kessa with too little in return, which leads to vicious fights after a long while.  -Ken wondered aloud a few times where their parents were, and eventually stopped asking. Ken knew that he loved his sisters, and he loved it more when they smiled, so he made every effort to do so. Ken became their sunshine, their rock, and as a result of that, he became easy to manipulate, in that if you could convince him it would be for the betterment of others, Ken would throw himself upon the ramparts. -Kella graduated high school and immediately went to work as a waitress in an upscale restaurant in New York, easing into being able to afford a shack to keep the weather off of her siblings and to keep them fed and clothed, though she struggled through the years to meet the rising needs, despite them asking for only what they needed and even then only when absolutely necessary. -Ken fell gravely ill when he was four, so sick that he burned with fever and shook with chills, and Kella could not even afford the bus fare to get them to the doctor, much less the most likely thousands of dollars worth of medical bills that would come when she took him, and she knew when she did take him that he and Kessa would be taken from her. Still, Kella worker harder than ever, at every odd job she could, to scrape enough money together to do something, when, as if by some God given miracle, Ken was better overnight, completely healthy once again. Kella and Kessa, too tired and relieved to question it, never spoke of it again, and if they noticed strage glowing lights or sounds around Ken’s sleeping form the night it happened, they said nothing of that either. -Unbeknownst to the siblings, they had an estranged aunt and uncle from their mother's side, Tia Sofia and Tio Grant, who had been looking to reconnect with Sofia's sister. Instead of finding their sister, they found a Jane Doe notice from a Harlem PD Morge, who had died three weeks before from drug overdose. The Harlem PD informed the already distraught couple, "We found Miss De Vega's last place of official residence on Rhodam, where her landlord said she'd lived with three kids, one teen girl, a younger girl, and a toddler boy. The landlord went up to see Miss De Vega in March of last year, said she was two months late with rent, and said the kids were very on edge. The next day, landlord went back up with a Child Services rep, and the kids were nowhere to be found." Since the PD had no idea what the children looked like, or even their names, the search seemed impossible.  -Tia Sofia and Tio Grant were sick with worry at the thought of three children all under legal age being on their own for over a year and a half. The couple searched everywhere they could think of for the kids, using up their vacation time to look for them. The children were just another case file number to the Harlem PD, one of a hundred similar stories, but Sofia and Grant never gave up, determined to find their family. -Sofia and Grant De Vega were a very happy couple, who loved each other very much. They had married young, at 20 and 21, respectively. Sofia was a fifth grade teacher, and Grant was a surgical nurse, and though their jobs were demanding and draining and stressful, they were never anything but loving and happy when it came to one another. They never had children but had always wanted them. -Sofia and Grant live in Sofia's family's ancestral home, a palatial coastal 'cottage' originally built in 1801, by the De Vega settlers under the rule of the Spanish. The house evolved from a Governors house to the land of the 'Cursed De Vegas' a family legend which allegedly happened in the 1850's. After falling on hard times, the De Vegas were looking to sell the home and the lands surrounding it, and were approached by a woman who wanted to buy the property. The head of the household, Raphael De Vega, is said to have laughed for an hour at the suggestion that any woman could afford to buy their home, and laughed an hour more at the idea that a woman would then become the head of the house. The woman was furious, and turned on her heel and left. The family wasn't concerned, until the woman returned the next day, with, as legend goes, a glowing green rock in each hand. As Raphael De Vega opened his mouth to unleash the dogs on her, she threw the glowing green rocks at the ground, where they burrowed deep into the earth and caused a minor earthquake. The woman said she was a witch, and that since Raphael De Vega refused to sell to her, she had used her rocks to curse the land, so that if it were ever sold, the De Vega family would fall to ruin the likes of which they could not imagine. There is also some family controversy as to whether or not the witch and Raphael were old lovers, but the fact remains that the family was so terrified by her threat that the house remained in the family to present day, though needing serious structural work and extreme renovations over the centuries, the house had stood on the coast, a proud nod to California's origins with a quirky backstory. -The house itself is called La Casa Verna, or Spring House, and other than the history of the witch, which in itself is good for an epic family debate, there are a few other oddities about the home. There is a room on the first floor of the house that has never been updated, and to the present day has no electricity or running water. This room was left to itself for its purpose. This room is called the Measuring Room, where, once a year for the big family reunions, family members will be taken one by one into the room and have their height and initials marked onto the walls of the room. This tradition is something that was started in the early twentieth century, as the room was briefly a nursery after a small fire on the second floor. The De Vega family at present consists of around 40 people, including the estranged children of Katy. Despite all of the markings of height in the room, however, there is still quite a lot of room on the walls, for more stories to come. The lands surrounding the house were used by Grant's brother Theodore Ortiz Soto and his husband Jericho, who had transformed it into a horse ranch and vineyard. -Sofia and Grant started their search for their missing nieces and nephew after they had been gone for a year and a half, and their mother had been dead for almost a month. Their search lasted three more years until finally, they had a solid lead on a Keman De Vega, a seven-year-old in a Harlem public school. -After living off of each other for so long, the three siblings were very wary of outsiders and dreaded the day their luck at evading child services wore out. Kessa often lost sleep at the thought of sleeping anywhere but next to Kella. Ken jumped every time he noticed an adult watching them a little too closely, though he didn't quite know what that meant. Kella took up boxing at a hole in the wall gym, to beat out her frustrations at their circumstances. -It was a normal May day, after lunch, and Ken was looking forward to seeing his sisters after school and showing them his artwork he'd received back when a police officer walked into his classroom and asked to speak with him. Ken immediately bolted, racing past the officer and past a startled couple in the hall to lock himself in a bathroom stall, hysterically screaming, "You can't take me away from them!" -Ken spent two hours screaming and sobbing, half in Spanish and half in English, before his sisters showed up to calm him down. After spending a good twenty minutes holding on to one another and easing Ken down from his hysterics, Kella explained that they had an aunt and an uncle, who'd been looking for them, and wanted to take them home to California, give all three of them a home, and a family. -None of the three siblings believed any of it was true, though they went with Sofia and Grant to California two weeks after they were found, once school was out. Kella was 20 and hardened by necessity, Kessa was scared and a realist of the world, and Ken was terrified of being taken away from his sisters. None of them believed that they were really heading anywhere but an orphanage, or maybe a foster home, not even when they were pulling into the garage of an old Spanish style mansion, rolling hills of grapevines behind it. They didn't believe it was all really happening until one night when Kessa and Ken were both having nightmares and Kella was having a breakdown of how to be there for both of them at once, when suddenly there was a hand on her shoulder and a kind voice saying, "Let us help, carina." -Ken quickly befriended all of his new family members, which greatly helped Kella and Kessa meld seamlessly into the family. Ken became instant best friends with Tio Grant's brother Theo's son Diego, a friendship which the family joked could withstand a nuclear bomb. -The extended family of the De Vega's had often wondered where little Katy had run to, and what had become of her. Though they were sad and outraged at the circumstances her children were found in, they were almost grateful for it. The three siblings brought new life, new vibrancy to the family. Mostly, though, they hadn't heard everyone's stories fifty thousand times, and the elders of the family quickly loved their enthusiasm for hearing endless stories about the family, no matter how DULL. (Though to be fair, seldom few of their stories were.) -Sofia and Grant wanted Kella to go to college immediately, but she decided to stay behind for another year and help her siblings settle into their new lives. -Kella attended Hartford, became best friends with Mark Collins, majored in Communications, and got a coveted internship at Buzzfeed New York. After working there two years, she found her way back to San Francisco to work for ClickIt, where Mark was also working. Kella moved in with Mark’s friends Brooke and Syreena, effortlessly fitting into his circle of friends. -Kella, fed up with the racist and sexist environment of ClickIt, broke off from the company and co-founded a San Francisco hard-hitting news outlet named PostAuthority, which quickly became one of the most popular online lifestyle and news blogs on the internet, and the number one most popular blog in San Francisco, earning the Blackbourne Award in its first year of operation. -Eventually, Kella began dating her co-worker Leah, and they were as happy as could be. -Kessa attended Hartford after her sister, quickly befriending her suitemates Kaitlyn Liao, Chris Powell, Zack Porter, Abbie Richards and Tyler Wu. Kessa’s initial attendance at Hartford relied only on her acceptance into a full scholarship. Upon her first day at Hartford, it was discovered that her scholarship application hadn’t gone through, and she needed to pay full tuition. Kessa became the intern for Professor Enrique Vasquez, working alongside his TA, Sophomore James Ashton. Kessa took the recalcitrant, cynical, humongous asshole professor and turned him into something resembling a human being before he died, helping him rectify things with his daughter and be there for the birth of his grandson. In turn, Enrique was the first of her group of friends to learn about her horrible past by YEARS, and was so immensely embarrassed at every nasty thing he ever called her, he wrote her into his will, providing a scholarship for the rest of her tuition if she finished the book he had based on her, and one other book about three siblings growing up on the streets (based on her early years). Kessa and Chris fell in love,  Kessa graduated Hartford and immediately got engaged to Chris, who became a US Senator before long while Kessa became a highly acclaimed author. -Ken grew up happy and content, but careful. He took after Kella and Kessa both, in that he started training in mixed martial arts with Kella when he was ten, and Kessa taught him how to make friends and more importantly, how to be one. Ken had the best qualities of both sisters, and whatever he didn’t get from them he had with Diego. Diego became an honorary De Vega sibling, his parents and Tia Sofia and Tio Grant often joking that they were attached at the hip and at the hand. Ken and Diego’s friendship made it easy for Kella and Kessa to focus on their studies and their careers, knowing that their brother had someone who was ride or die for life, the same way that they were. -Ken and Diego’s relationship was...unconventional. Ken, from his background on the streets, was a high functioning mess of anxiety and tightly coiled rage that he kept locked way down deep in his chest, and Diego, with his background as ‘the foreign kid’ at school and the bullying heaped upon his from such, was a highly functioning mess of disassociation. The only reason either of them were highly functioning was because of the other. Each one knew the front, back, side, inside and outside of the other better than they knew themselves, they knew how to break the patterns of succumbing to the mental illnesses plaguing them. They knew how each other worked, how they moved, how they lived. Ken had Kella and Kessa, but he also had Diego, and Diego had him, and nothing was going to take it away from him. Ken loved humanity, he was friends with humanity, but he trusted none of it but his sisters and Diego. -Ken eventually went to Hartford too, but it wasn’t until his Junior year that he and Diego had their adventure. They participated in a contest at Hartford for ten students to win an all expenses paid one week trip to the luxury Caribbean island of La Huerta, and would stay at the five-star resort, The Celestial. Ken never told anyone but his sisters all of the horrible things that he was subjected to on the island, and his sister’s never spoke of it again, but the family soon became aware of the siblings turn against Rourke Industries, and despite a few jokes about Ken seeing ‘inside the belly of the beast’ during his visit to the island, it was never questioned. Ken returned from the island hand in hand with Sean Marcus Gayle, who immediately came out to the media as bisexual, and dating one sunshine and kittens Keman Rodrigo De Vega. 

[my-mystic-messenger]

RFA + V + Saeran figuring out MC is like literally a junior in high school?? That's how old I am and I'm kinda wondering how they'd act! ^^

I figure that you being a Junior equals17 years. Now this is a really interesting ask, to be honest, becausein Korea funnily enough the age of consent is 13 years. In Europewhere I am from that is pretty similar. So if you’re American some ofthese reactions might shock you. Frankly, I find American age laws tobe ridiculous most of the time. To consider someone underage by 16/17years old…

|| REQUEST ARE (ALWAYS) OPEN!! ||

Zen (23)

♬ when he found out he was extremelyashamed

♬ he choked up for a moment too

♬ he’d freaking kissed you! Twice!

♬ you’d stayed at his place

♬ you’d almost been kidnapped by alunatic because he hadn’t been faster

♬ such a young and innocent girl to gettangled up in such a mess…Zen couldn’t help but sigh

♬ he also wanted to punch himself forhinting at such lewd things in front of you

♬ you were like a young flower not evenin full bloom and he’d already tried to pick you

♬ for a while he tried to avoid you

♬ mainly because he couldn’t trusthimself not to do and say more such things

♬ despite your young age you wereextremely strong willed, determined and kind

♬ all those things made you ratherattractive in his eyes

♬ on top of that you really looked older

♬ eventually you caught on to what he wasdoing and admittedly you got a little angry

♬ oh what now? because you weren’t 20years old you weren’t good enough anymore?

♬ you assured him that sex most certainlydidn’t scare you

♬ in fact, hadn’t he had sex long beforeyou?

♬ Zen admittedly hadn’t been able toargue that one as his teen years had been rather adventurous

♬ when he’d tried to pull the ‘but I am aman and you are a girl’ card you’d glared daggers into him

♬ you’d also contemplated slapping himfor his misogyny but decided against it

♬ God forbid you actually gave himmaterial for his silly arguments

♬ after that it didn’t take long to winZen back

♬ mainly because he knew that he wouldn’tjust use you like other men his age might have

♬ because he knew that he genuinely caredfor you, loved you

♬ because he’d been just 15 years oldwhen he’d started to take control of his own life, so why should hedeny you that very same right

♬ he still asked for your understandingwhen it came to public display of affection

♬ as a rising star he really couldn’tafford any scandals especially involving young girls

♬ (Jaehee also loved to remind the bothof you of that)

♬ you didn’t mind as much since you understood wherehe was coming from

♬ you hadn’t really cared for publicityand anyone knowing all too much anyway

♬ Zen also being not as uptight as someothers made other aspects much more interesting

♬ more often than not you were allowed tosleep over, even on weekdays

♬ Zen didn’t give a shit about schoolduring his years, so why should he lecture you

♬ he was also an amazing work outpartner, while you usually helped him with proper food

♬ bonus points for the face he made whenyou finally seduced him

♬ to his disdain, you’d done so ratherquickly despite Zen trying to control himself

♬ you were just happy he had no selfcontrol whatsoever as he was truly and literally a beat in the bedand that was an experience you more than enjoyed

Yoosung (20)

★ when he found out it actually tookYoosung a while to register

★ he’d been complaining about assignmentsagain, as he usually did, while you’d tried your best to cheer him up

★ eventually you’d chimed in, complainingabout your homework and all the final exams you had coming up, not tomention the CSAT’s you’d soon have to start preparing for

★ Yoosung had felt for you, really, as hestill very vividly remembered his exams

★ eventually you’d both said yourgoodbye’s until an hour later Yoosung had returned to the chat

★ he’d spammed it with emoji’s andcapitol letter messages of surprise and shock

★ you were still in high school and ifyou weren’t yet preparing for the CSAT’s you were an 11th-graderat that!

★ it was slightly awkward at first

★ mainly because he was ashamed he neverasked for your age

★ hell, you could have been some twelveyear old girl getting tangled up in all of this

★ but you insisted you were fine and hebelieved you

★ being a minor he was still extremelyprotective of you and swore he’d do anything to keep you safe

★ in the end, however, age just wasn’t anissue for Yoosung

★ after all, he was mere three yearsolder than you

★ his own parents had a bigger age gapand they were perfectly happy

★ on top of that you seemed to love thefact that he was slightly older

★ whenever you called him oppa his heartswelled with pride and he blushed

★ he was especially happy once he pickedyou up from school after getting his license

★ you’d bragged to all your friends aboutyour older boyfriend, making them all jealousy

★ Yoosung had never gotten that muchattention from girls like he did the moment he stepped out of his car

★ not to mention that once you’d actuallymet and started dating…well it turned out age was seriously nothingmore than a number as you were a lot more mature than he was

★ so even after you were revealed theyoungest in RFA, he was still considered the baby

★ if anything you being younger than therest of the RFA made you much more understanding

★ you understood the struggles ofstudying, procrastination and stress

★ you also turned out to be a greatgaming partners on certain date nights were the two of you allowedyourself to indulge in such things

★ above all, however, your young agereminded him of taking things a little slower

★ you dated for quite some time until hefinally asked you to marry him and it only made your union all thestronger for it

Jaehee (25)

♨ to Jaehee your age was a slightlybigger problem than it would be for the rest

♨ for one, she’d taken job advise from aminor, which was bad for more than one reason

♨ it also made your possibly relationshipimpossible in her eyes

♨ being both female was already hardenough, but you being a minor on top of it…

♨ while her parents might have had a hugeage difference, she’d learned to steer clear of them

♨ for her it had ended rather poorly andJaehee had no need to repeat mistakes already made

♨ from the moment she realized just howyoung you were, all romantic intentions were forgotten

♨ instead she began seeing as a youngersister and best friend

♨ it wasn’t half bad either, as both ofyou really blossomed from the relationship

♨ you taught her all about the girly,teenager stuff she’d missed out on while she taught you all aboutbusiness and other grown up things like taxes and stuff

♨ it was fun going shopping together andyou’d enjoyed helping her put make-up on for the first time

♨ she’d also been extremely patient whenteaching you how to correctly wash laundry

♨ not to mention that a lot of the thingsyou did together had no time stamp on them

♨ like for example making yourselfcomfortable on the couch and watching Zen videos

♨ or even better, going to the theater towatch his musicals life

♨ your age also didn’t mean that youcouldn’t help her with the café

♨ sure, you had to spend quite some timein school, but after school you came to the café every day andhelped out with anything and everything

♨ on weekends you even offered to workfull day, so she could take the days off

♨ Jaehee was extremely grateful for that

♨ and generally for having met you

♨ despite being young you’d given herjust the right advise

♨ you also had a young and freshperspective on things which helped a lot with customers

♨ eventually you finished school anddecided to go work full time with Jaehee

♨ she’d tried to advise you to go andstudy, but you’d been insistent

♨ after all she’d studied and gotten ajob and yet not enjoyed it

♨ why not safe yourself from pointlessexperiences other’s had made before you

♨ Jaehee had just laughed, unable toargue that point

Jumin (26)

♛ when you arrived at his apartment he’dbeen instantly smitten

♛ you’d captured his heart in the chatalready but on top of being kind, you were also utterly beautiful

♛ the only problem with Jumin is that hecan be a little ignorant of society, norms and such

♛ so having been a working hermit for thepast years he hadn’t really registered that teenagers tended to looka lot more…mature these days

♛ the only reason he even found out wasbecause you told him you had to leave, as you couldn’t afford to missa day of school

♛ he’d frozen for a moment, swallowed andtried to understand what you’d just said

♛ school?

♛ not university and not work but school

♛ he’d asked you for your age then andyou’d shyly admitted to being only in 11th grade

♛ it made things a hole lot uncomfortablefor an evening

♛ while he still kept you at his place –you weren’t safe after all – he’d stormed off to work withoutanother word

♛ now you didn’t judge him, you kind ofunderstood

♛ he was an extremely public figure afterall and people just loved to tear down as it was

♛ Jumin could not afford another scandalabout him dating a school girl on top of everything

♛ not only that, but you also knew of hisfeelings about his father dating women much younger than him

♛ almost a decade of age differencesurely must have scared him off

♛ you’d sighed and made yourselfcomfortable, rolling into a ball on the bed, waiting for him to kickyou out upon his return

♛ surprisingly, things didn’t quite gothat way

♛ the first thing he did was apologize toyou, for a lot of reasons

♛ for one he’d admitted to having hadsome rather inappropriate thoughts he was scared you might findextremely appalling and disgusting

♛ you assured him that it was absolutelynot the case

♛ he also apologized for keeping you awayfrom school as education was important

♛ of course that meant he’d gotten you aprivate teacher for however long you wanted and needed him

♛ he kept a slight distance to you, atleast physically

♛ you still talked and flirted and moreoften than not it was you making him flush pleasantly

♛ once you started to become moreseriously you assured him that you were fine with hiding therelationship, anything to not dirty his reputation further

♛ he’d assured you that you had nothingto be ashamed of, but that maybe keeping the relationship under theradar for a while wasn’t a bad thing

♛ after all, he could only marry you onceyou’d turned 18 and then only with your parents consent

♛ he was more worried of not gettingtheir permission and having to wait until you were 20 years old tofinally put a ring on your finger

♛ by the time you’d finally turned 18your parents had been delighted to agree and he’d swept you off rightaway

♛ age difference be damned, you were his

Saeyoung/Seven (21)

☼ by the time you’d gathered the courageto tell him how old you were, he already knew

☼ frankly, he seemed to know much morethan that as well

☼ you quickly came to the realizationthat he’d hacked into a lot of your private information

☼ you were too shocked to even feel angryabout it

☼ also exhausted, if you were completelyhonest with yourself

☼ you’d been carrying this guilt aroundever since you met, scared to admit to your age

☼ it had taken you days to get him to beeven remotely nice to you

☼ much longer to actually open aboutabout feelings and such

☼ then it finally clicked

☼ he’d been so mean to you because heknew of your age the entire time

☼ when you confronted him about it Sevenwas quick to admit you were right

☼ he hadn’t really cared personally

☼ four years wasn’t all that much

☼ not to forget that he’d beenindependent much earlier than you as well

☼ Seven had learned early on thatphysical age rarely equalled mental age

☼ that being said, he could not put aminor in danger and since he practically seemed to attract that, itmeant he had to keep you at arms length

☼ he’d seen what facing difficultiesearly on in life could do to people

☼ Jaehee, who’d lost her parents beingforced to almost work herself to death

☼ Zen, who’d abandoned his family only tojoin gang, get himself in danger on a regular basis and craveaffection and attention to the point he developed into a lonelynarcissist

☼ Yoosung, who’d lost his beloved cousinand was no barely able to function much as V as well

☼ even Jumin’s incompetence to act like anormal human being could be traced back to a root in his childhood

☼ Seven didn’t even want to begin to listhow much his childhood had fucked him up

☼ he’d tried to keep you away as long aspossible, deny himself his feelings

☼ it hadn’t lasted long, not when youunderstood and healed him in ways no one else could

☼ not when you’d been the bravest he’dever met

☼ not when you’d risked your life forpeople you barely knew and had no obligation to, let alone hisbrother who’d actually tried to harm you

☼ no matter what danger had been thrownat you, you’d managed it with utter ease

☼ eventually he’d been out of reasons tokeep away from you

☼ in fact, he was even in utter awe ofyou as you proved once and for all that age did not matter

☼ your body might not have been, but yourheart was fully developed

☼ your brain too, just saying (Sevenlikes em smart)

☼ so he gave in, ignoring all the voicesin his head telling him not to

☼ because of literal death threatscouldn’t keep you apart, age shouldn’t either

Saeran (21)

☀ by the time you’d gotten him away fromRika Saeran had been in no shape to date anyone, really

☀ not that he would have cared much tobegin with

☀ he’d loved Rika and she’d been olderthan him as well

☀ however the very same Rika was also thereason he’d given up on love

☀ mostly, that is

☀ he knew that he felt something for you

☀ but there was just too many things inthe way

☀ for one, he was dangerous

☀ even outside of Mint Eye his mind wasan utter mess

☀ he was too unstable to care forsomeone, let alone a teenager

☀ those were generally too emotional tobegin with

☀ he liked you just fine and he let youin as far as he could, but there were still walls after wallsseparating the two of you

☀ just like with V it would take him along time to actually admit to his feelings

☀ not because they are there and mostcertainly not because of age

☀ he’d tease you about it from time totime, call you a baby, child or brat

☀ Saeran would never mean it though, notreally

☀ you might have been young, but you’dbeen taken care of him, not the other way around

☀ you were mature and you knew what youwanted, traits much more important than age

☀ they were also precisely the problem

☀ he was older, he should have been theone taking care of you

☀ so when he realized he wasn’t capableof doing so, he did much like his brother

☀ he kept you at a safe distance for aslong as he needed to and not a day longer

☀ when he was finally able to trusthimself not to hurt you

☀ when he was finally able to be and actlike a fully functioning being

☀ he finally let you in

☀ you’d been there for him when almosteveryone else seemed to have given up

☀ you’d sat through insults and deaththreats

☀ never once had you given up on him

☀ someone like you was one of a kind,Saeran knew as much

☀ he’d be a fool to let a silly fouryears stand in the way

☀ so the second he thought of himself asstable, he went to you

☀ not wasting a single second to make youhis officially

☀ not when he’d already wasted so manyyears of his youth

Jihyun/ V (26)

📷 when V had found out about your agehe’d immediately cut you off

📷 it was rather harsh but not unexpected

📷 V wasn’t a bad person he was justextremely guarded

📷 especially after everything that hadhappened with Rika

📷 for the longest of times he hadn’tallowed himself to move on

📷 after that he hadn’t allowed himself tofall in love again

📷 so when you’d actually managed to makehim fall for you, you’d been wary to begin with

📷 you’d met people like V before and youknew how they worked

📷 even the smallest reason to break upwith you and they’d grasp at it

📷 not because they don’t love you, quitethe contrary, actually

📷 V loved you a lot and you knew as much,he always showed it

📷 but he was scared of his feelings andnot ready to face them yet

📷 so as expected, he fled from them

📷 for a while he disappeared from thechat entirely, which wasn’t anything new

📷 however even when he returned you werenever on at the same time

📷 even when you caught him mid chat hebarely acknowledged – if at all – and disappeared right aftertaking care of whatever business he was taking care of

📷 obviously the feeling wasn’t pleasant,but eventually you managed to move on

📷 almost a decade of age difference and alot of trauma were two very valid reasons to separate people from oneanother

📷 after a while things between the two ofyou cleared up

📷 V returned and you talked

📷 never about your relationship, but atleast you were friends again

📷 you even managed to convince him to gethis eyes fixed, which for you was much more important

📷 by the time he actually got to see youthe first time, years had passed

📷 he’d been blind for two RFA parties,gone for another

📷 you were over 20 years old now and whenhe saw you climb on stage to hold the opening speech, it took hisbreath away

📷 you were confident and soft at the sametime, a proper woman now

📷 he was still aware of the agedifference but it seemed so irrelevant all of a sudden

📷 it had taken him years, but he finallyapproached you that night

📷 sure, you weren’t that young studentanymore, but the wait had been worth while

I should be studying for my own exams…why the fuck am I writing these instead?!